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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: wax · wind · lean · pit · clip · race · march · land

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  5. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  6. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  16. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  22. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. wind — moving air
  3. clip — to cut
  4. lean — to bend
  5. wax — for sculpting
  6. wax — to grow
  7. wind — moving air
  8. clip — for paper
  9. land — a country
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. march — the month
  12. wax — in the ear
  13. march — the month
  14. pit — a hole
  15. lean — to rest against
  16. lean — thin
  17. clip — a video
  18. pit — a fruit stone
  19. race — the arms race
  20. race — humankind
  21. pit — in a race
  22. race — a contest
  23. march — music
  24. land — to come down

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com